Dark Carnival - 5/5: Concert
The Concert is the fifth and last chapter of Dark Carnival. The Survivors must attract a helicopter by starting up the Midnight Riders concert which includes opening lights, the use of fireworks, and playing the sound system on full blast on a concert stagePC Gamer magazine. The Concert is also a playable Survival Mode stage. Strategy Survivor Walkthrough In this chapter, the Survivors start out in a hallway under the concert seatings. There are two sets of bathrooms in this hallway that may contain useful items. Usually, a single Bile Bomb will spawn in one of the bathrooms or behind the two trailers in the hallway directly before entering the stadium. This Bile Bomb can be crucial during the final moments of the finale, so keep it safe. Once the hallway exits out to the concert area, the Survivors can begin preparing for the finale. The Survivors must first start the stage lighting, which is located up on the top of the stands, right in front of the stage. They must then start the Midnight Rider's track to officially start the finale. That will signal a helicopter and consequently the horde. Once the helicopter arrives you must climb up the stands and enter the helicopter. There are several items located around the staging that will be helpful in holding out until the helicopter arrives: *Health Kits spawn either on the stage, or up in a health box behind the stage lighting controls. *4 Adrenaline shots usually spawn next to the track recording, though they are occasionally found on one of the bottom stair landings in the seating area. *Guitars spawn on the stage *Guns and ammo spawn either on stage or in the middle of the the seating. *Pills and defibrillators usually spawn on top of the two wooden awnings in the middle of the seating. Sometimes pills spawn on top of speaker stacks on stage or in front of the stage as well. *Fireworks and fuel cans are always found right on the ground in front of the stage. *Molotovs and Pipe bombs spawn either on the speaker stacks in front of the stage or on one of the bottom stair landings in the seating area. *About half the time, a Bile Bomb will be found in the bathrooms or the concession area on the way to the concert area. *A Grenade Launcher can always be found on one or the other of the two towers opposite the stage. In Versus you can make a bunch of them spawn by: picking up grenade launcher, pick up old weapon, repeat, this way you don't have to reload the grenade launcher. *Between the safe room at the beginning and the weapons found in the concert area, there will always be at least one scoped rifle (hunting or sniper), one type of assault rifle, and one of the auto shotguns. There will also always be either the Magnum or a second pistol next to the ammo stash in the concert area. This finale is similar to the ones in Left 4 Dead, in that the Survivors have to survive through two waves of Infected and Tanks, and get to the rescue vehicle when it arrives after the second Tank is killed. Another popular strategy is to hold out in the upper corners of the seatings, as there no quick way for the Infected to reach the Survivors. While fighting the Tank, lone Survivors can run and grab defibrillator units or health kits. Rinse and repeat until the helicopter arrives. In this stage, the Helicopter will either land on the left or right side of the stage. Whichever method you choose, use the Bile Bomb you grabbed earlier (or saved from the campaign) as soon as you hear the sound of the horde. The longer attraction effect of the bile bomb, combined with a well-timed adrenaline, will allow you to simply run past all Common Infected without so much as a scratch. Notify the team of when you will throw the bomb, as well as aim it either behind you and the chopper, or into some obscured place (preferably over a Tank too). This way you buy more time, and don't run the risk of running into the Infected. Note: 'if you see the Tank coming turn on the stage fireworks, as Tanks have a tendency to climb onto the stage ''through the fireworks. Stage Method * Three should have shotguns, and one grabs a hunting/sniper rifle. *The center of the stage has a raised platform, use it as an advantage. *When Infected or Tanks come at the front, try to turn on the fireworks. *If you're out of ammo, find adrenaline at the table and run towards the front benches. *The helicopter will come at the farthest point from you, (left or right) so it is advised to use adrenaline at that time. *Stick together while reaching the copter, as Smokers, Jockeys and Chargers will try to separate you. Platform Method *Near the benches, there are two high-raised construction platforms. *Two should cover the middle part, the other one snipes from above with the last one guarding him/her. *The sniper should look out for Smokers; because the fall damage can hurt you. *Watch out for Spitters as they can easily force you to climb down or get hurt by Spitter Acid. *When the Tank spawns, don't panic and jump straight away (you may get incapacitated). #Instead, go down through the ladders to the lowest platform, then jump. #Try to throw a Bile Bomb at him. It should prove useful while going down from the platform. #Also try using a Molotov to set him alight. #If you're quick, you and your team can grab ammunition and explosives. Mixer Method *Way at the top, there should be a mixer and, if you're lucky, some supplies. *Good snipers will be valuable here because Infected will take some time to reach you. *Two should carry sniper rifles, and the rest AK-47s or shotguns. #Try to find penetrating weapons (bullets that can pierce through multiple Infected.) #If there aren't any, use melee weapons. #If you managed to find a chainsaw, use it later. *Tanks should be easy since you can circle around him throughout the stadium. *You can charge through the Infected (with the chainsaw) to reach the helicopter easily. Doorway Method *Below the stairs, there is a closed doorway with fireworks near it. *Infected will be coming at three sides, and even jump from above you. *Lean against the walls in a box formation: 2 on the door, and each in left or right walls. *It is advised to use close-ranged weapons; a chainsaw if you can find one. *Set out the fireworks before starting the trigger. *Be careful of Spitters, because you are in a confined space and you can't move freely when the Horde comes. *Light up fireworks if Infected start to overwhelm you. *Spread out in two groups when the Tank spawns. #Try to grab rifles and/or pistols, since shotguns or melee weapons are only effective at close range. *After the second Tank, quickly run to where the helicopter hovers. #Switch back to the shotguns/melee weapons to deal with Infected more quickly. Seating Method *After you start the concert go back to where you hit the stage lights. *You will have high ground to shoot Infected coming up at you. At least one person should have a Hunting or Sniper rifle, to pick off Special Infected. *Infected can come from your sides, watch them at all time. *Sometimes there is a medical cabinet behind you. *Smokers,Chargers, or Jockeys can break up your group. *You have plenty of room to kill the Tank. *It will be easier to reach the helicopter. adrenaline will help. *The Grenade Launcher will be very useful. *Ammo cache will sometimes spawn in the middle of the seats, in between to two platforms. When that happens, it would be more useful to refill ammo. Jesus Plywood Method thumb|300px|right|Walkthrough Note that this method uses a still not corrected glitch in the map and it's only doable when playing a campaign with humans (since bots will not follow you there). However, it's very useful to easily get the Guardin' Gnome achievement, as well as enjoying the music! *Get everyone to camp over those wooden panels on the far end of the stage and stay crouched. *In order to get on top of the plywood, there is a forklift behind it. *Get behind it. *Jump twice, you should be on top now. *Jump across to the plywood. *Stay crouched all the time, turn your flashlight off, and watch out for Smokers. *No Common Infected will spawn, only some Specials. The two Tanks will spawn, but they will either die immediately/in a few seconds or spawn on the far end of the arena, so your team can safely take them down (especially if someone is equipped with a sniper rifle). Be careful, as a good placed concrete throw can hit all the Survivors. *If someone falls off the panels, the Infected will spawn as usual; this also means that when the chopper arrives, you'll be chased by the Infected, so be prepared to run (adrenaline and pipe bombs really help here). Stay together, as Chargers and Smokers might split your team. *Once the chopper comes, have two people throw pipe bombs, and then pop an adrenaline and run to the chopper. *Be careful as sometimes the Tank will spawn on top of the roof on the building to the left of the plywood (Assuming you face the seats) and throw rocks at you. Corner Stage Method *Before you start the concert you or one of your teammates must have a pipe bomb or a bile bomb. *When you first walk in the concert go to the upper right corner of the bleachers near where the Infected come out. *There it should be a rail and a metal box on each side making a little space for one or two Survivors. *Once you find this place you can set up there with fireworks and gas tanks. *After you set up the best weapons to use would be a Grenade Launcher, two Sniper Rifles or Hunting Rifles, any melee weapon and any automatic weapon. (Try to get some adrenaline to run to the helicopter) *When you start the concert run up to the corner of the stage and have the person with the Grenade Launcher in the middle and the two snipers in front with an automatic and a meleeing keeping Infected from crawling up the rails. *When the Tank comes it's best to circle around and throw a Bile Bomb at him. After that shoot your guns until he's dead. *Repeat until the helicopter arrives. *With the addition of The Passing, Valve patched in rooms above the corner of the stage, to allow Infected to spawn there. This greatly reduces the effectiveness of this strategy. Stage-Platform Method *Before you start the finale, everyone should have an adrenaline shot (This will be needed when you run to the rescue). Also, at least one survivor should save a pipe bomb or bile jar. *Set-up the fireworks and gas cans near the platforms, the stage and the two possible landing sites of the helicopter. *If everything is set-up, start the finale. *All survivors should hold out in the stage during the first wave (the song Midnight Ride). Two survivors should have shotguns, one should have any kind of assault rifle variant and one should have a sniper rifle. Everyone should have a melee weapon of any kind. It will be needed for the run to the platforms and chopper. Shoot the gas cans or fire works when the Tank arrives. *After the first Tank is killed, all Survivors should immediately climb the platform with the grenade launcher. Immediately heal yourselves if needed. Hold out here for the second wave (the song One Bad Man). Have one two survivors climb the tallest part of the platform. Those two survivors should be the one with the sniper rifle and the other with the shotgun. The survivor carrying the shotgun should get the grenade launcher while the survivor with the sniper rifle should cover the survivor carrying the grenade launcher. The other two survivors should go to the lower part of the platform. The survivor with the assault rifle will take care of any common infected or special infected that will get past the two other survivors from the upper part while the survivor with the shotgun will cover the survivor with the survivor with the assault rifle. You could shoot the gas cans or fire works when you get overwhelmed. *When the second Tank appears, everybody should get down on from the platform. DO NOT JUMP! Especially if you are on the higher part of the platform. Jumping will result to having a large amount of damage (about 20 damage). *After the second tank is killed, immediately heal yourselves again when needed. Wait for the chopper and use the adrenaline and run to the rescue. The survivor carrying the bile jar/pipe bomb should throw it away from the rescue and the Survivors. *This method is also helpful if you are trying to get the Guardin' Gnome achievement. You could leave him in one of the two platforms and not worry about him getting lost. Just remember to come back for Gnome Chompski. Infected Methods: Spitter As the Spitter, you're going to want to hit the fireworks either when the round starts so the Survivors can not get them, or as the Survivors are collecting them to do some damage. You're also going to want to avoid the platforms to avoid being seen by any Survivors who look up, but also avoid being on the stage where the Survivors will do anything to get supplies. Another good strategy is to spit into the stage lighting so the Jockey can do damage for both Spitter goo and fire damage, or spitting under the microphone so the Survivors can not start the stage lighting for another ten to twenty seconds, giving the other Infected time to weaken them for the Common Infected. Charger Unlike the Spitter, when playing as the Charger you're going to want to crouch on the platforms, close to the ladder so when the Survivors are climbing, you can charge them down into the stands, doing some extra impact damage. Another strategy is to crouch behind the fireworks, charging the Survivors towards the stage, making them drop the fireworks, and maybe making one of the other Survivors shoot the fireworks, getting one weapon out of their arsenal. Jockey When playing as the Jockey, you need to stay out of sight until the Survivors light the stage lighting, then leap onto them, leading them directly into Spitter goo and/or the Stage Lighting, dealing damage. Another good strategy is to hide until the Tank is about to spawn, then lead a survivor directly over to the Tank. Boomer The Boomer is quite ineffective on the concert, as there are no places to hide, but a good strategy is to be like the Charger, crouching on the platforms to avoid being seen. When a survivor climbs up, cover 'em in bile. Smoker As the Smoker, when the stage Survivors are on stage, shoot your tongue through the Stage Lighting, dragging the Survivors through them doing damage. When they are on the platforms, you need to rip them off, incapacitating or killing them. Hunter The Hunter strategy is simple, jump through any gas tanks, fireworks, molotov fire, or even the Stage Lighting, then pouncing the Survivors to do a good two to five damage per attack. Another good strategy is to jump from the taller platform onto the Survivors, doing a good ten to sixteen pounce. Tank The Tank is probably the easiest to use in this campaign. Lead the Survivors onto the stage or onto the platforms. When on the platforms, they either have to fight you or jump. When they are on the stage, they usually will try to back up and end up running into a wall. Do not walk into the slim area where Survivors can activate fireworks and set you on fire without a molotov. If you can, try to corral one of the Survivors into the blocked off corner (west if you're on-stage facing the seats). There's a forklift there that you can use to insta-incap Survivors. If you can find a way to that corner inconspicuously, you can batter the forklift out into an open area for more fun. Notes *Also, both Ellis and Coach are wrong singing the lyrics, they sing:"Gotta reach for the top, stay on the mountain..." but the real lyric is "Reach for the top, gotta stay on the mountain". *Both Ellis and Coach can sing into the microphone on-stage after the lights have been turned on. **Ellis will also on occasion pretend he is performing a mic check. **Any voice command you use while standing next to the microphone the sound will be heard through the speakers. Also, quite humorously, if the Special Infected stand in front of the microphone, their sounds will be heard over the speakers also. *The band featured on stage is the Midnight Riders. *A switch at the front of the stage allows the Survivors to activate the fireworks as a firewall against the Infected, igniting anything in its path. *There's a glitch in Single-player where, right after you exit the Safe Room, if you go in the nearest bathroom, go in the room in front of them, and then go all the way where there's a sort of coffee machine, occasionally a Bot, guarding outside the bathroom, may just start running all the way to the stadium, as if they're the group leader. *This finale has its own unique tracks for when the Tanks attack, '''One Bad Tank and Midnight Tank. These are puns on two of Midnight Riders tracks: One Bad Man, and Midnight Ride. **One Bad Tank music. **Midnight Tank music. *Much like the helicopter pilot from Left 4 Dead, the pilot who rescues the Survivors is Infected. This appears to be a running gag in the Left 4 Dead series. **The helicopter pilot uses the same model as the News chopper Pilot in Left 4 Dead. The helicopter itself is a re-skin of the News Chopper 5 model. *The helicopter can fly in on either the right or left side of the seats. This is the only finale where the rescue vehicle can change their location. *Fireworks appear only in this chapter of the Dark Carnival campaign. *If you go close to the back of the seats to observe the band and turn your character to face behind, you can see the names of the band members of Midnight Riders. *The music that plays from the speakers includes vocals, which means that the vocalist lip-synced to the songs. This is stated by the Survivors multiple times. *Writing in the safe room wall reads: "The Riders are OK. They got choppered out last night." It is possible the helicopter pilot who rescues the Survivors is the same one that flew the Midnight Riders to safety. **Just before this bit of writing, people thought the Riders were dead, and were mourning their loss. After the graffiti speaks of the Riders being rescued, the writing turns openly hostile towards the Riders. **That same chopper that rescued the Midnight Riders might have brought them to the setting of The Passing, considering the fact that a Midnight Riders Tour Bus passes by in The Underground. This could otherwise be other Survivors driving past and avoiding the Infection. *Before starting the concert, a box on the stage reads "I survived Earls Gator Village" referring to the next campaign, Swamp Fever. *This finale is fairly tough to survive when the helicopter arrives. This is due to the spawn points of the Tank right after the second was killed. The Tank will spawn very close to one of two places where the chopper would fly in and on several occasions, you will run right into the Tank as you make your way to the chopper. Sometimes, the Tank must be killed as running past the Tank might make him chase you and he will either block the entrance to the chopper, preventing any other Survivors from getting in or punch you out of the chopper. If the Tank spawned on the opposite side however, the only obstacles the Survivors will have to worry about is the horde and any living Special Infected. *The stadium is used in Gamestop's pre-order ad. *Though this is very rare, a Tank or a Witch may spawn outside of the safe room en route to the stadium.. *A glitch will sometimes occur while weapon hopping the grenade launcher to a more defensive position that will cause your primary weapon to become glitched and stuck in midair. It can still be re-equipped and meleeing it will cause it to fall and behave normally. *Originally, Valve planned this finale to be set on a train, akin to a more county fair type setting. This was cut out because it "wan't as much fun as you would think". References Category:Dark Carnival Category:Finale Category:Left 4 Dead 2